The Cumulative Impacts of Climate Change on Subsistence Agriculture in the Sudano-Sahel Zone of Cameroon: Enhancing Adaptation Policies

Abstract

With irrefutable evidences from around the globe, climate change impacts are being felt and are adding significantly to the development challenges in ensuring food security and alleviating poverty particularly to most Sub-Saharan African countries as a whole (Low 2005) and the Sudano-Sahel region of Cameroon in particular. This is strongly due to the fact that agriculture is the mainstay in the region where the majority of the population is very dependent on rain-fed agriculture, accounting for more than 90 % of staple food productivity (Calzadilla et al. 2008). Subsistence agriculture provides food, power, stability and resilience of rural livelihood. With the growing number of extreme weather events, the societal vulnerability to the risk associated with climate change and land degradation will exacerbate the present on-going socio-economic challenges in ensuring the food security and livelihood of ruralites.